Manuscript Collection Inventory
Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Note: Unless otherwise specified, documents and other materials listed on the following
pages are available for research at the Illinois Historical and Lincoln Collections, located
in the Main Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Additional
background information about the manuscript collection inventoried is recorded in the
Manuscript Collections Database (http://www.library.illinois.edu/ihx/archon/index.php)
under the collection title; search by the name listed at the top of the inventory to locate
the corresponding collection record in the database.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
http://www.library.illinois.edu/ihx/index.html
phone: (217) 333-1777
email: ihlc@library.illinois.edu
1
Oliver R. Barrett. Papers.
Section. Page.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
1.
4.
6.
10.
11.
18.
19.
Oliver Barrett to Carl Sandburg
Barrett to and from others
Sandburg to Barrett
Sandburg to Others
Others to Sandburg
Sandburg writings and notes
Other material:
photographs, printed, clippings, envelopes
8. 21. Barrett auction
1. Oliver Barrett to Carl Sandburg
This file contains carbon copies on thin yellow paper (with
exceptions as noted). To these typescripts, Barrett appended a
few autograph additions. The Aug. 9, 1946 typescript, for
example, is annotated in another hand: "Balance of letter
handwriten by ORB--large writing."
In the following list, the number after each year is the number
of letters written in that year.
The contents of selected letters are noted after their
particular date. These notes summarize only a small portion of
the contents of the letters. Barrett wrote on many matters in
most of his letters, including, for example, references to his
work, his vacations, his and CS's friends, and the weather.
1933 (4)
July 13: where did AL write the Gettysburg Address?
1935 (2)
1936 (9)
May 15: comments on CS's draft of A Lincoln and Whitman
Miscellany (white paper).
1937 (2)
2
1938 (3)
Jan. 7: search for author of letter attributing to AL warning
of the power of corporations.
Jan. 31: criticism of Emanuel Hertz, Hidden Lincoln: From the
Letters and Papers of William H. Herndon.
1939 (25)
Feb. 9: illustrations for the War Years.
May 16: Hawthorne's first published work.
June 9 (telegram): "About the title pages."
July 18, two letters, with notes for the first one:
corrections and modifications in the captions of the
illustrations in the War Years and in CS's acknowledgment of
Barrett (3 copies of both letters, two on white paper).
July 22: "I like your dedication very much indeed."
July 27: "Let me know when you can ease up on your labors and
bear down on your golf game."
Sept. 8: idea of collecting the illustrations in a separate
volume.
1940 (8)
Apr. 22: regarding Gov. Horner's gift of his Lincoln
collection to the Illinois State Historical Library.
July 12: Arch W. Shaw (1876-1962) wants CS to visit Herbert
Hoover when CS is in San Fransico. OB wrote CS c/o Grant Wood,
Iowa City, Iowa, repeating the suggestion in a telegram this day
and in a letter on July 22.
Nov. 1: did John Hay write the Bixby letter?
1941 (15)
Jan. 28: as "unscarred veterans" of the Spanish-American War,
should OS and OB accept government pensions?
Mar. 1: on CS's introduction to Frederick H. Jaenicken's
"Lincoln in the Photograph Gallery," and the proof of this
introduction, dated May 25. Jaenicken typed a note to OB on the
proof: "Thanks a million times. You did it." Apparently, this
work by Jaenicken was never published, although he printed two
other Lincoln booklets.
May 21: more on the Bixby letter.
May 26: sorry that CS missed a gathering at George Ade's farm.
1942 (3)
1943 (6)
3
Jan. 9: Story of Tom Lincoln's two wives and on the
acquisition by the Library of Congress of "the Vollaber books."
Nov. 8: on the Weeks (or Sands) case.
Nov. 23: inviting CS to fill out a a bidding sheet for an
autograph auction at Swann's.
1944 (10)
Feb. 21: OB's secretary (probably Linnea Klefbohm) writes that
he wants CS to know that "they are sure of getting the money for
the Gettysburg Address." [This refers to the Everett copy
acquired by the Illinois State Historical Library.]
Mar. 10: OB asks CS to speak on Mar. 25 when "the Gettysburg
Address will be presented to the State."
Apr. 11 [both the ALS and a carbon]: "The story, 'William
Bradford's Love Life'...is pure fiction."
July 6: comments on the Judge Windom pages [of Remembrance
Rock] and on the reputation of baseball's "Cap" Anson.
Sept. 13: OB is "held spellbound in the unfolding of the story
of the Revolution" [in Remembrance Rock].
Dec. 22: epitaphs.
1945 (10)
Feb. 2: OB wants CS to speak to the Caxton Club.
May 1, shortly after F.D.R.'s death: OB notes that he
routinely said nothing about him rather than censure him.
July 30: OB wonders whether to strike certain passages in the
Remembrance Rock manuscript but to wait to see how they might
fit in. "In fact, I know of nothing [in the ms.] to
criticize..."
Nov. 23: James G. Randall wrote OB that CS is "'one of the
grandest souls the Lord ever made,' and for this I have no
absque hoc" [denial].
1946 (9)
Jan. 21: OB suggests a rewording of a sentence in CS's preface
to Roy Basler's Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings
(1946).
Mar. 21: Basler appreciates CS's preface to Basler's Abraham
Lincoln. OB sends CS a biographical sketch of his pioneer
preacher father and the one of his sermons.
June 28: OB suggests to CS a drive to his native Pike County,
Ill., to see towns there, including Atlas, Summer Hill, Pleasant
Vale, and Pleasant Hill.
1947 (12)
4
Apr. 15: notes, draft, and letter on a possible title for
Remembrance Rock. That title may "not appeal to the movie
producers."
May 9: OB comments on a letter to the Pike County Republican
about early figures in Pittsfield. [See below for OB's response
to that letter]
June 3: specific suggestions regarding Book III, the "buildup" to the Civil War, which includes Pike County references.
Dec. 24: on photographs of Barrett's that Harcourt now has.
1948 (7)
Jan. 14: further attention Barrett photographs now with
Harcout.
Apr. 14: on Archibald MacLeish's letter about OB's collection:
"it certainly is a lallapaloosa"
July 30: OB on Churchill: "I think his memoirs are probably
the most important and interesting that have been published of
this or any other war."
1949 (6)
Feb. 28: OB "had a joyous time reading and mulling over" the
Lincoln Collector manuscript. "The book ought to be of
inestimable value to all collectors not only as a spur to
collecitng, but as a guide to advising them how to arouse the
interests of others in the treasures that they have collected."
(This letter is accompanied by two copies on white paper.)
May 6: OB concludes this letter: "Now I am going home to get a
good long rest so that I will be ready for work on the galley
proofs when they come."
n.d., ALS (unsent): OB is thinking of compiling a booklet of
facsimiles and portraits, to use in "an appeal for funds...to
build a hospital" in Pittsfield. It would include memorable
quotations from AL, the actor and writer John Howard Payne, and
others, and be printed by Donnelly's.
n.d., OB's draft of a paragraph in the War Years, 3:480-81,
about Carter E. Prince, 4th Maine Vols., who survived at Cold
Harbor because his pocket edition of the New Testament stopped a
bullet. For a picture of the Testament with the embedded
bullet, see ibid. 2:373.
2. Oliver Barrett to and from others
5
Barrett to his mother, [1898, at the outset of his brief service
in the Spanish-American War?]
Barrett's receipt for payment of $1,185 for "Kay Manuscript and
Calvin Letter," signed by Jennie Burnell Gunther and Burnell
Gunther, executors under the will of Charles F. Gunther, Feb.
28, 1920.
Barrett to Fanny Butcher, Chicago Tribune, suggesting a short
article about A Lincoln and Whitman Miscellany (1938), Nov. 24,
1939.
Invoices for 22 sets of the War Years, lists of recipients, and
OB's settlement with CS for various editions of the four-volume
set, 1938-40; telegram relating to Quinn and Boden, the bindery,
Nov. 6, 1939.
Letters between Barrett or Sandburg and Howard Clark, 1939;
Isabel Ely Lord (5), 1939-40; and Catherine ("Kitty") McCarthy,
1939-49 (11), all at Harcourt, Brace and Company, regarding the
preparation and certain details of the War Years and Remembrance
Rock. Also CS to McCarthy on the organization of OB's
photographs, Dec. 15, 1947, and OB's outline for lists of
photographs in his collection on loan to Harcourt, 1947-48.
Letters between Barrett and Adda George (6), 1945-46, regarding
the Sandburg Birthplace; dedication program and other ephemera
(5), photograph of the building before its restoration by Art
Young, Galesburg.
Letters between Barrett and Helga Sandburg, 1945-49 (8),
including her first impressions of Connemara, two drawings of
her young children, and word that she answered for CS an inquiry
about AL to George D. Ramsay, Oct. 17, 1861. [CW locates the
ALS in the Barrett Collection, but facsimiles of the letter are
common.]
Letters between Barrett and Robert L. Kincaid, Lincoln Memorial
University, 1946-48 (5), discussing whether CS's account of OB's
collection [what became the Lincoln Collector] should be
published as an article in the Lincoln Herald, a booklet by the
Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, or a book by Harcourt, Brace.
6
Barrett to the Pike County Republican, recollections of people
in Pittsfield, on or shortly after May 9, 1947 [see his letter
to CS on that day].
Barrett's order of three items from Tyson's Book Shop,
Providence, R.I., June 3, 1947.
3. Sandburg to Barrett
1935, Nov. 23, TLS(c). CS will shortly send OB "three long
chapters" of The War Years and also "the longest piece of verse
I have ever written" [The People, Yes].
1935, Nov. 25, TLS. CS asks "to receive those numbers of that
lawyers' publication" with OB's articles on "the lives of great
trial lawyers."
[1936], ANS. "frazzled now from having finished the Mss of 'The
People, Yes'....ask [Kittridge] please not lose print of only
one original Steichens we have."
[1937], Jan. 26, ALS. CS asks OB to make copies of an Aug. 26,
1933 letter from Sen. C. C. (Clarence Cleveland) Dill of
Washington to Seldon Smyser, Washington State Normal School, in
which Dill recalls an anecdote about Lincoln told by Uncle Joe
Cannon. On Jan. 27, 1937, OB sent one copy to Smyser. CS adds:
"Have improved my imitations of the Chinese."
1937, Feb. 22, TLS.
notes that his "mail
persons "in economic
way out" is to write
1937, Apr. 4.
CS postpones a Caxton Club program and
is heavier than ever," especially from
distress and whose appeal is that the only
and sell something.
Folder of pictures of Appomattox.
1937, Nov. 2, TLS.
1937, Dec. 24, APS.
CS's high regard for Roger Barrett.
CS sends OB "a strange manuscript."
1938, Mar. 28, APS. CS thanks OB for "a fine lot of Lincoln
background...not found elsewhere" from the Dobbs family.
[1939], AL(t), AN. CS suggests that OB "shape up an article for
Paul [Angle] and the State Historical Journal." This became
7
"Lincoln and Conscription," Journal of the Illinois State
Historical Society, 32:1 (Mar. 1939), which CS regards as "the
best (though far from definitive) piece of research that has
been done on Lincoln and conscription." CS's writing was
clipped to OB to CS, Feb. 9, 1939.
1939, June 13, T.
"Arriving Chicago tomorrow."
1939, Sept. 1, ANS. "returned to ORB after ten years of active
service": note on an envelope containing a carbon copy of a 24page list of photographs, apparently keyed to pages of those
images as collected in three volumes.
1939, Sept. 2, TLS. CS asks OB for prints of Lincoln funeral
car and the funeral train on pier out in Lake Michigan, and
refers to similar prints owned by "Our old college chum
Meserve...The entire illustration job [for the War Years] is
coming to a close."
1939, Oct. 17, TLS. CS thanks OB for copy of letter to Isabel
Ely Lord, "a blessed fiend for accuracy and micrometric
exactitudes."
[1940, May 18 (postmark)], ANS. CS asks OB to have copies made
of "this tattered item." The "Tattered clipping" as then typed
is a copy of what Oliver Wendall Holmes wrote about rhymed
verse.
1942, June 1 and Sept. 1. Rustless Iron and Steel Corporation
dividends, endorsed by CS to OB.
1943, Nov. 9, TLS.
wants."
CS to OB: Give Lloyd [Lewis] "whatever he
1944, July 20, TLS. CS asks OB "for another reading of that
sketch of Justice Windom" [in manuscript of Remembrance Rock].
1944, Oct. 14, T. "Your judgments [regarding Remembrance Rock,
probably] corroborated."
1946, Oct. 16, T. To Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studio on part of the
Remembrance Rock manuscript being sent to OB, an "important
research collaborator, entirely trustworthy."
8
1945, Jan. 14, AN. On a copy of Alan Jenkins, The Prophetic
Challenge of Galesburg's Great Poet: "For Oliver Barrett, who
knows the extent of the accuracy of various statements herein."
1945, Apr. 26, ANS. "The enclosed is to run in the Wom[an's]
Home Comp[anion}" and typed (C) poem, "Birds."
[1945], AN. In a minuscule script, CS recalls OB's
"determination to say nothing if you couldn't say good about FDR
during the war."
1945, Nov. 5, TLS. CS collects George Washington's many
synonyms for the Deity. This contradicts Rupert Hughes, whose
three-volume biography of Washington reminds CS of "that Lamonsigned Chauncy Black-written biography of Lincoln."
1946, Jan. 2, TL (3 copies). CS to OB: "You keep grips, bags &
contents left with you Dec. 1945, look them over & separate what
you wish to keep. Turn the rest over to Roger [Barrett}, not to
be given to any other person or persons. Nor shall any
publication of anything left with you be made within forty
years.". [What was this material? Two possibilities, neither
more than a conjecture, include writings about FDR (the phrase
"When death came Apr 12, '45" is part of OB's illegible note on
one copy); and the unsigned or initialed "Personal" letters and
notes from various women to CS, listed at the end of Section 4.]
[1946]. "The Connemara place surpases expectations....in two or
three days of work we can finish the article, book or
incunabulus we are on....all of the irreplaceable things we
shipped, such as some of those letters from you, Lincoln,
Meminger et al., came thru in fine condition."
1946, Mar. 3, ALS. CS sees as "good news" OB's intent to "move
into a slowdown of work."
1946, Dec. 12, ALS. CS asks "How go your ramblings and findings
amid your Collection? Sometime this winter I hope to get on for
finishing our book [Lincoln Collector]."
1947, Jan. 1, ANS. CS asks OB to make a copy of "the American
Revolutionary sequence" of Remembrance Rock for Voldemar
Vetluguin, Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
9
1947, Aug. 25, ALS. CS writes of going through the newly-opened
Robert Todd Lincoln collection in the Library of Congress, and
hoping that OB similarly mounts, indexes, and microfilms his own
collection.
1948, Aug. 12, TLS(c). Among other things, CS writes: "I never
forget the share of your contribution to The War Years and The
Prairie Years."
1948, Sept. 26, ALS. On autographing copies of Remembrance
Rock, and copies for OB, "if only on account of my negligence &
waste of your time, not to mention positive contributions on
your part."
[1948]. ANS. CS forwards a excerpt from Churchill's The
Gathering Storm: "Harry Hansen sends this on. It has the range
& dignity of Lincoln in that last '58 speech [Oct. 30, 1858] &
later expressions." [Regarding that speech, see the Lincoln
Collector (30-34).]
TLS, [1948]. Notes on items to include in the Lincoln Collector.
The following are autograph notes signed by CS but not dated:
"This latest may have revisions. It's not so good as this dandy
Xmas story in the New Yorker. ..." This is accompanied by a
carbon typescript of a poem, "Acquaintance with Death, Sir."
"Nice to have those Ames' [?] almanacs with distances between
New Eng towns..."
"As I have come across in boxes, bundles & envelopes, more of
your photographs used in The War Years, there has been humility
& degrees of a sense of guilt in being unduly
irresponsible....My Lincoln materials & other paraphernalia of
notes, documents, clippings &c never before got into such
dismembered scatteration..."
"May three (3) is the date with your Trial Lawyers."
"Keep this garrulous diary piece, which needs revision and will
get it." This is written on page 2 of a carbon typescript about
Segovia with whom CS had "an evening of six hours."
10
"What an item! I wonder whither it went," written on a report by
Noah Brooks ("Castine") regarding a gold box presented to AL by
"some of his friends in California."
ANS, miscellaneous (9)
4. Sandburg to Others
Chalmers, Gordon, Rockford College, Nov. 19, 1936, recommending
Roger W. Barrett for a Rhodes scholarship. Copy typed by Linnea
Klefbohm (Oliver Barrett's secretary).
Costigan, Howard B., Seattle, Jan. 2, 1946, draft and telegram,
turning down an invitation to speak to the Pacific Northwest
Writer's Conference at the University of Washington.
Crawford, Nelson Antrim, The Household Magazine, Topeka, Kans.,
copy, Nov. 19, 1936. "About that piece of juvenilia 'In
Reckless Ecstacy,' I know of no available copies."
Geffen, Felicia, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Nov. 19,
1949. After receiving her telegram, CS replied, voting for
Steinbeck, Mark Van Doren, and Faulkner.
Hannah, Allie, copy, Nov. 26, 1941.
written CS about Al Hannah's death.
On Oct. 16, Barrett had
Harcourt, Alfred.
Copies, some annotated by Ellen Harcourt. Note: (M) = printed
in Herbert Mitgang, ed., The Letters of Carl Sandburg (1968).
1922, Oct. 23 (M).
1927, Jan. 14, on the death of CS's mother.
1927, Dec. 23 (M).
1928, Aug. 30, on the death of Harcourt's mother.
1932, Apr. 21, on the car accident of Harcourt's son, Hastings
("Hake").
1947, Sept. 8, CS's note on a typescript of Mary A. Dodge,
Hamilton, Mass., to AL, Mar. 4, 1865.
1949, Jan. 6, CS's 71st birthday (M).
1950, Oct., CS's get-well note to Harcourt.
n.d. [after 1951]. CS's belated acknowledgment of Harcourt's
own book, Some Experiences (1951).
11
Harcourt, Ellen, letter to CS, Aug. 11, 1961, and letters from
CS, Aug. 28, 1961, and n.d., all copies.
Johnson, Walter (University of Chicago), Feb. 17, 1945, on
William Allen White and examples of ironic epitaphs. Johnson
edited Selected Letters of White, and wrote a biography of
him. CS endorsed a copy of Johnson's letter for Barrett: "this
fellow asked me for White material. I think we have more than
he can use."
Lovejoy, Mary, May 27, 1941, apparently regarding her son's
death: "Lincoln had tears over the likes of you..." CS
annotated the carbon, probably for Barrett: "It was good we
met this rare woman."
Peterson, Christine Esther, Chicago, Nov. 8, 1940, copy: "Your
particular kind of drollery, if more people had it, might save
the country." CS wrote in reply to her letter of Nov. 6
regarding his "recitation" of AL texts at a meeting, one day
before FDR's re-election, of the Svenska God Granne Roosevelt
Forening. On Nov. 12, Mrs. Peterson thanked CS for his reply.
Her initial letter is annotated, apparently by Barrett, who
noted, for instance, that "Lewis Sinclair" referred to Upton
Sinclair.
Pearson, Charles S., New York, n.d. CS refers to a conflict
"because of imperative campaign writing commitments."
Schenk, William P., Nov. 19, 1936, carbon.
Chicago or at Harbert.
On meeting CS in
5. Others to Sandburg
Bailey, Whitman, Stamford, Conn., Feb. 3, 1942, in envelope from
CS to OB, wanting to sell a letter from AL to Bailey's greatgrandfather, Sen. James F. Simmons of Rhode Island. [CW
contains 9 items from AL to Simmons.]
Barkhurst, Theodore B., Lynwood, Calif. Apr. 10, 1944, wanting
to sell "an older picture of Lincoln" which he believes is
unique.
12
Black, Mrs. David, Tarpon Springs, Fla., Feb. 27, 1944, wanting
to sell AL's letter to Amanda Hall, Mar. 20, 1865. [Cited in CW
as ALS-F, ISLA.]
Bonham, Elizabeth Turner (Mrs. E. H.), Detroit, Jan. 20, 1935,
regarding a photograph of John Wilkes Booth beneath which is
written "Down with the tyrant."
Chandler, Henry P., president, Chicago Bar Association, Jan. 13
and Jan. 26, 1939, asking CS to address the Association, and
Clarence P. Denning, the Association's executive secretary, to
OB, Jan. 16, 1939, repeating this request.
Cole, Stanley L., Chicago, Nov. 27, 1939, regarding a note by
AL, "Let Thomas A. Hughes...be discharged."
Dahlberg, Gotthard A., Chicago, Mar. 10, 1941, inviting CS to a
Stil-frukost (Herring Breakfast) at the Swedish Club of Chicago.
Dickson, William Bradford, Staten Island, N.Y., Feb. 11, 1936,
and a postcard, May 12. Dickson's mother-in-law was Sally
(Sarah) Rickard (Mrs. Richard Barrett [Barret]), who "lived at
the home of her Uncle Mr. Butler, a wealthy farmer near
Springfield, Ill. Lincoln, then a struggling young lawyer,
became very attentive to Sally Rickard, in fact would have liked
to marry her, but she could not see it. Miss Rickard was a very
beautiful, intelligent aristocratic girl." Forwarding the
letter to OB on July 1, CS wrote: "note herein that Sally
Rickard married a Barrett..."
Dodd, Martha, 1932-38 (9), n.d. (23), and a note; envelopes (7);
a snapshot.
Martha Dodd's letters to CS are variously signed Martha, M,
and Paludio. She wrote on stationery of the Chicago Tribune
(where she was an assistant literary editor); Stoneleigh, in
Round Hill, Va. (the family home); and James Burnham (editor of
the Symposium, A Critical Review, with whom she was briefly
engaged). CS, who had long known Martha's parents became more
familiar with her by 1932, when she began addressing her letters
to him as "C. A. Hamburg/Saint Joseph/Michigan." Later, she
sometimes used embossed stationery and envelopes of the Embassy
of the United States America. Her father, William E. Dodd, had
become ambassador to Germany in 1933.
The lot includes a carbon of part of CS's letter to her when
she first reached Berlin. CS is among her many correspondents
13
in the collections of her papers and her father's in the Library
of Congress, and letters from CS to her are quoted in Erik
Larson, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American
Family in Hitler's Berlin (2011).
It is possible that CS from time to time showed OB particular
letters (a few mention "Oliver"). It is also possible that CS
gave his letters from Martha Dodd to OB for safekeeping, as much
of what she wrote, if known to others, could prove embarrassing
both to him and to her.
Donnelley, Gaylord, publisher, Chicago
Dec. 21, 1938, regarding A Lincoln and Whitman Miscellany.
Dec. 15, 1939, asking CS to inscribe three sets of The War
Years.
Feb. 1, 1940, inviting CS to speak to the Caxton Club.
May 6, 1941, regarding celebration of the publication of the
Miscellany, set for May 24 at George Ade's farm.
Duell, Sloan and Pearce, telegram, Oct. 3, 1944, regarding
galleys for Archibald MacLeish, The American Story: Ten
Broadcasts (1944), endorsed by CS: "no MacLeish galley had
arrived..."
Eames, Anne W., Reading, Mass., Nov. 13, 1939, wanting to sell
"old newspapers, Harper's Weeklies, of Lincoln's
administration..."
Eckel, John G., Philadelphia, Feb. 22, 1940, who was "a clerk in
the legislature" in Springfield, seeks CS's signature on his
copy of the War Years, vol. 1. OB replied for CS on Apr. 15.
Evans, Margaret S., Indiana, Pa., Dec. 10, 1942, regarding a
group of letters picked up by Union soldiers at Fairfax County
Court House, Va., and a report of Capt. Thos. Glenn (?)
concerning the fall of Chapultepec, Mexican-American War, Sept.
1847. On Jan. 7, 1943, OB replied to her, suggesting that she
send her list of the material to Paul M. Angle, Illinois State
Historical Library.
Farber, Celia (Mrs. Paul B.), Camp Hill, Pa., Apr. 24, 1944,
offering to sell what she believes is part of AL's Lyceum
address, a copy of which she encloses.
Fellows, Edna, San Francisco, Mar. 19, 1937, the eye operation
of Mrs. Page, who has memorized CS's poems.
14
Foster, Leslie Combs, Richmond, Va., Apr. 19, 1938, offering to
sell a pass in AL's hand, Nov. 21, 1861, and enclosing a
photostat: "Mrs. Mary Mitchell, daughter of Gen. Leslie Combs,
of Ky. desires, and should have, a pass to visit the
fortifications in the vicinity of Washington." CS sent the
letter and photostat, with a note postmarked Oct. 15, 1938, to
OB: "I have not replied to this. You know better who might be
interested."
French, Carrie M., Otsego, Mich., Mar. 21, 1936, wanting to sell
a collection of letters, 1833-1860s, found in a house being
dismantled for a rifle range in World War I.
Grant, Ted, New York, N.Y., n.d., asking if CS would be
interested in "an Abraham Lincoln 1833 antique."
Gruninger, F. F., Chicago, Nov. 17, 1942, asking if CS would be
interested in a telegram to his father, Apr. 22, 1865, regarding
the escort of the Lincoln funeral train. Endorsed by CS: "mail
to Oliver R. Barrett."
Harvey, Dorothy Dudley, New York, 1930-37 (10), n.d. (5),
clippings (2), and a snapshot.
The letters are variously signed Dorothy, D, and Flim. The
lot also includes a carbon copy of CS's letter to her on Feb.
22, 1935, Also among these letters, or in proximity to them,
were three typed fragments written by CS, and a snapshot,
possibly of Dorothy Harvey and her boys, Harry and Jason.
Hathaway, Katharine Butler, Salem, Mass., Oct. 19, 1934.
Recalling meeting CS two or three times in 1930, she sends him a
copy of her book, Mr. Moffet's Cat (1934).
Heald, Sarah Thorp (Mrs. J. G.), Lake Hubert, Minn., Aug. 27,
1933, wanting to sell two pencil sketches of AL made by her
father, Freeman Thorp "from the living model." Thorp later used
the sketches for his portrait of AL "in the Senate corridor in
Washington."
Hellmuth, G. T., June 4, 1940, asking CS to address the Sunday
Evening Club at the New Trier High School. Hellmuth already
wrote OB about this.
15
Hoover, Herbert, July 1, 1942, asking CS to write out his poem
"Grass" and send it, and an autographed photograph, to J. Duane
Upton, Erie, Pa. Perrin C. Galpin, Assistant to Mr. Hoover,
wrote CS on Aug. 27, 1942, that Upton had forged Hoover's
signature and had confessed to this and other similar frauds.
Hoover, M. M., Columbia University, Feb. 28, 1946, enclosing a
photograph of AL to Park Benjamin, June 19, 1863. Lincoln's
draft, omitting crossed-out words reads: "I would be pleased to
see you any time. I would be glad to have you publish a
biography of me--by my authority. I certainly can facilitate
you." This draft is pictured in Merle M. Hoover, Park Benjamin:
Poet & Editor (1948), opp. 182. Barrett replied to Benjamin on
CS's behalf, and wrote CS, on Apr. 5, 1946. Barrett commented
on AL's draft, adding that "An interesting chapter might be
written on the assistance given by Lincoln to various
biographers, for it seems that Lincoln may have thought that the
best chance of having his name remembered in future times would
be some mention, however slight, in the printed pages of
writings of others." See also AL to Benjamin, Nov. 19, 1860,
and Mar. 1, 1862, in CW.
The Lincoln Curator and the staff of the Papers of Abraham
Lincoln project, at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library,
deem AL to Behjamin, June 19, 1863, to be a forgery.
Hope, Helen, Oakdale, Calif., 1937 and n.d. (11).
In these letters, CS is "Phaon" and she is "Chico." She wrote
particularly about the health of her mother. She became Helen
Hope Rudolf Page by successive marriages, and later lived with
Gale Wilhelm.
Hughes, Natalie, New York, July 28, 1930, and n.d., wanting to
see CS "if you ever come to town."
Johnson, Vilas, Chicago, Jan. 22, 1946, reporting that "the
Lincoln portfolio" presented by Arthur Andersen to the Crown
Prince [of Norway] has been found intact at Skaugum (the
official residence), undisturbed by the Germans who "had been
residing there for five years." Johnson also reported this to
CS.
Kittredge, W. A., Chicago, Feb. 19, 1937, inviting CS to address
the Caxton Club, adding a note to OB: "Will you add your plea to
ours?".
16
Kruse, Ed. C., Kruse Antiquariat, Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 12,
1936, asking CS to suggest a price for AL to Cole and Wall, Jan.
21, 1859, a letter in ALPL according to CW.
Ladenheim,
that AL to
at Harvard
in The War
Jules Calvin, Cambridge, Mass., Mar. 17, 1942, noting
Charles Sumner, Mar. 5, 1865, is in the Sumner papers
rather than the Barrett collection, which is credited
Years, 4:119.
Lawson, Ed, Washington Post, n.d., regarding an unidentified
poem, "He Lives in Hearts that Wait," quoted by CS in a column
dating from World War II. Sending the letter and clipping to
OB, CS wrote: "This is kind of nice. Go over it."
Lucker, Amy S. (Mrs. H. D.), Eureka, Kans., n.d. but about Dec.
4, 1939, when CS appeared on the cover of Time, wanting to sell
CS a photograph [probably a c.d.v.) of AL.
Nachtmann, Martin T., Albany, N.Y., Dec. 4, 1939, who at the
time owned the original of AL to Peter H. Silvester, Dec. 22,
1860 [printed in CW], with a reply from OB to Nachtmann, Jan.
24, 1940.
Paine, L. W., Economy Book Store, Chicago, Feb. 9, 1945, asking
CS to return an edition of The Wide-Awake Vocalist or RailSplitters' Song Book (1860). OB replied, blaming himself for
the delay in returning the book. CS annotated Paine's letter:
"He may eat us up about that Songbook I left with you yet maybe
we should wait for more displays of his courtesy of which he is
so distinctly aware." See also CS to OB, Feb. 14, 1945.
Penfield, Thornton B., Jr., First Congregational Church,
Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 16, 1941, inviting CS to stay at his home.
OB, replying on Oct. 7, 1941, suggests having coffee together.
Pleadwell, F. L., Honolulu, July 17, 1935, regarding a desk or
secretaire that he bought from a furniture dealer names Marino
in Washington, D.C. Pleadwell traces ownership of the desk from
AL to Robert Todd Lincoln to Jessie Harlan from whom Marino
acquired it after she married Frank Edward Johnson in 1915.
Attached to this letter is a photograph of the desk.
Ricks, Sybil H., Manhasset, N.Y., telegram, n.d., asking CS to
inscribe a word in his book for her son, "a soldier overseas."
CS and Jesse Ricks were good friends.
17
Sessler, Charles, book and manuscript dealer, Philadelphia, Feb.
9, 1945, writing that he had "just sbeen offered a minute book
of the Little Pigeon Creek Church" in Spencer County, Ind.
Sherry, Laura, Milwaukee, Wisc., Dec. 14, 1939, asking CS to
inscribe The War Years. He did so, as Linnea Klefbohm (OB's
secretary) writes on Dec. 22, 1939.
Tolpo, Carl, Chicago, Feb. 14, 1949, carbon copy sent to OB,
seeking CS's support in his proposal to paint portraits of
Lincoln and Douglas for the Illinois House of Representatives.
Tussman, Malica (?), ALS, n.d. "Upon reading Carl Sandburg for
the hundredth time."
Wing, Clarence H., Toledo, Ohio, Jan. 3, 1940, quoting from the
records of the Columbus Machine Manufacturing Co. of Columbus,
Ohio. See AL to Samuel Galloway, July 27, 1859, partly quoted
in Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years (1926),
2:174-75, and AL to Charles Ambos, a letter relating to
litigation involving Ambos and James A. Barret. Both letters
are in CW. OB, writing for CS, replied to Wing on Jan. 26,
1940, and was thanked by Wing the following day.
Winkley, Noreen, in N.H., June 12, 1945, regarding a
daguerreotype of Lincoln and a collection of about 80 Civil War
letters.
Yost, Walter, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Oct. 27, 1943, asking if
Truman Bartlett did the Death Mask of Lincoln. OB's annotation
correctly notes that it was by Clark Mills in Feb. 1865.
Unsigned or unidentified
Most of these letters are personal and written in an
affectionate, amorous, or poetical vein:
Gail to Cully [as CS was called], New Britain, Conn., Dec. 6,
1939.
Hannah, Feb. 23, 1936, using Swiss postage and asking CS to read
her manuscript, "Not yet by bread alone...Harcourt said he would
publish my stories when I had enough. I haven't yet."
18
K., Laguna Beach, Calif., July 18, 1937.
"The Old Home Town," the typescript of a poem posted from
Galesburg, Ill. on July 28, 1946, which CS referred to OB:
"Suppose you send copies of this to Adda George and to Rev Alan
Jenkins, Galesburg. It came unsigned."
"Natty Bumppo," New York, Oct. 8-Dec. 1, 1945 (6).
S., n.d.
Sara, n.d. and two snapshots.
Yuhlilbata [name?], n.d.
Fragments of typed letters (8), cut out, folded, and kept in a
Chicago Daily News envelope, n.d. Snippets of intimate writing.
Two snapshots of an unidentified woman.
6. Sandburg writings and notes
CS's Last Will and Testament, 1927, unsigned typescript, naming
his wife as executor and beneficiary.
On the Civil War and Lincoln, a manuscript not used in the
Lincoln pages (134-39 and passim) of The People, Yes (1936).
Three-page carbon typescript.
"John Wentworth" (Editor, Congressman, Mayor of Chicago),
Dictionary of American Biography (1936), 19: 657-59, two drafts.
Attached is CS's note: "This goes to Oliver."
CS's acknowledgment of OB in the War Years.
revision" of a one-page typescript.
On AL and Mark Delahay of Kansas.
the War Years.
Six copies "Before
Typed fragment not used in
CS's remarks on the presentation of the Henry Horner Lincoln
Collection to the Illinois State Historical Library, Feb. 12,
1941. Horner's "familiarity and affection for his Lincoln
books...ran so deep in him that some of his friends nicknamed
19
his Lincoln books 'Bachelor's Children.'" This is part of a
two-page typescript which varies somewhat from the excerpt in
Thomas F. Schwartz, "'More pleasure in the pursuit than in the
possession': A Brief History of the Henry Horner Lincoln
Collection of the Illinois State Historical Library," Illinois
History Journal, 82:4 (Winter 1989), 267.
Lincoln's message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862, quoted on Norman
Corwin's CBS broadcast, Apr. 24, 1945, and prefaced by CS:
"Lincoln's words...stand alive and quivering with their awful
im;lications." Carbon typescript.
Item sent to Lawrence Tibbet for Carnegie Hall meeting and to
Tage Palm for NBC broadcast to Sweden, Apr. 14, 1945.
Typescript and clipping of "What Would Lincoln Do Today?"
Collier's, Feb. 15, 1947, p. 84, and two almost identical notes
from CS to OB, one of which reads: "This is the full text sent
Collier's which made deletions, mainly for space reasons. You
might show it to Paul [Angle]."
Remembrance Rock (1948) [American Cavalcade (initial title)]:
CS's "Notes and Acknowledgments"; loan of part of the ms. to OB.
Unpublished draft (2 pages), possibly written, but not used as a
preface to John B. Sanford, The People from Heaven (1943). CS
is quoted among the blurbs on the back cover of the paper back
edition (1995).
Fragments: a postscript alluding to AL and FDR; a draft
referring to Napoleon and Hitler (sent to OB, Apr. 10, 1942);
two clippings from personal letters, two more unidentified.
Extracts, typed up for CS's use, one by S.I.
7. Other Material
Photographs
Four seniors in the Lombard University graduation class, n.d.,
photographed by W. E. and W. B. Loomis, Galesburg, Ill.
CS and Margaret Sandburg (?) when a child, snapshot, n.d.
20
Helga and Janet Sandburg, as children in Elmhurst, Ill. on
either side of CS, 1921. On the back of the photograph is CS's
note to Alfred Harcourt on how it should be printed in Edward
Steichen, ed., Sandburg: Photographers View Carl Sandburg
(1966), 14.
Edward Steichen photographing CS, who wrote on the margin of the
print: "Dear Oliver--I'm not sure but this should be private and
confidential. Carl." Sent to OB on Feb. 15, 1947. This
photograph was later printed in the introduction to Steichen,
Sandburg.
Sandburg, Gov. William G. Stratton, and State Sen. Dick Larson,
photographed in 1958 at Knox College by Gleissman Studio,
Galesburg.
John Carl Steichen (?) when a child, twisting CS's nose,
snapshot, n.d.
Prints, positive and negative, of CS's handprints, n.d.
Printed
[1939]. Reprint of the New York Herald Tribune's list of best
sellers, including CS's Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.
1943, Jan. 28. Program for special concert of the St. Louis
Symphony Orchestra, including the first St. Louis performance of
Aaron Copland's A Lincoln Portrait. Andre Kostelanetz,
conductor; CS narrator.
1948, Nov. 14. Alan Jenkins, The Religious Message of Carl
Sandburg's Remembrance Rock.
[1948]. Flyer for David Donald, Lincoln's Herndon (with an
Introduction by CS).
[1950]. Flyer for Carl Sandburg's New American Songbag.
[1952]. Van Norman Book Company, Galesburg, Ill. Announcement
and order form for Sandburg's Always the Young Strangers (1953),
in envelope picturing him.
21
[1952]. Harcourt, Brace and Company, Carl Sandburg: A Sampler
from the Forthcoming Book, Always the Young Strangers.
1968, Mar. 26. Program of the Kansas City Philharmonic,
including the premiere at Knox College of Michael Andersen's
"Symphony in A, Commemorating Carl Sandburg."
n.d. Reprint of CS's first published writing on Lincoln, in
1909, "Lincoln on Pennies."
Clippings (17)
Some dated, some not.
The lot includes:
CS's articles in the Chicago Times and the Washington Post on
Feb. 7 and 14, 1943, relating to the family Bible entries in
AL's hand. See the Lincoln Collector, 106-8. CS added a note
to OB on one of these articles.
CS wrote another such note on a column by Theodore
Jorgenson, apparently in a Duluth newspaper.
On Mar. 11, 1940, Margaret Fulmer, Librarian of the Parmly
Billings Memorial Library in Billings, Mont., sent CS a clipping
from the Feb. 25 Gazette in that city that pictures the letter
from AL to Mordecai Mobley, June 4, 1860 (CW, 4:70).
Sandburg centenary articles in the Galesburg Register-Mail, Jan.
5, 6, and 7, 1978.
Envelopes
24 addressed to OB (most typewritten, a few in CS's hand).
3 addressed to CS, including one to CS, "Chicago Poet, Chicago."
8. Barrett Auction
Portfolio of ephemera collected by Earl C. Kubicek relating to
the Barrett estate auction, Feb. 19-20, 1952.